<p>Hi, my daughter is a freshman at Northeastern University in Boston. She was accepted into the Honors Program in International Affairs, then changed to Undeclared before she entered. As an undeclared major she takes a class where, each week, three majors are presented to the students. Each major brings in a student in the major; a professor teaching in the major; and a person who works in the field of the major. By Thanksgiving, the students will have seen all the primary major areas and can narrow down, if not choose, their major.</p>
<p>My daughter decided in her third week of college that Art was what tickled her best. I recommended she wait until Thanksgiving so she would have seen all the majors, but she went ahead and declared herself an Art major in early October.</p>
<p>While I fully support my daughter's choice to pursue what makes her happy, Art majors often have difficulty finding work. She is a general BA Art, not an MFA or Design major. Her tuition at Northeastern, a fantastic but expensive school, is being paid by the post-9/11 GI Bill. I only get to use that for one of my children, so I'm basically using it on her but now concerned that it's paying for an Art major at a four-year university.</p>
<p>She is somewhat interested in Art history, and has talent in writing and drawing, but I hope she doesn't end up teaching because she can't find a job in the art gallery or museum world, or with a focus on graphic or industrial design. Northeastern has a world-class cooperative education program, so that should help, and the campus is literally across the street from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, so perhaps an internship there could help her focus her future.</p>
<p>Does anyone have similar concerns or know of job growth in industry for Art majors? Thanks so much for any help.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting the links. Interesting to know how they organized their design/art programs. Is your daughter interested in computers as they also have dual majors with computer science which I think would give her another tool in her future? It would also be helpful to know exactly what internships they have the art/design students take to get a better idea of the kind of roles they are grooming students for. </p>
<p>I think your sense of ending up with a graphic design degree is correct, I know several who are unemployed. Industrial design is a separate specific major that is not taught at N.E but is a Wenthworth in Boston. My son is interested in Ind. Design but he is also a big computer CAD type and those skills are used in many industries.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply, Lakemom. My daughter is computer savvy and already does art on her computer with a drawing pad and other tools. I don’t think she’s so into the programming side, but she does know that computers factor into virtually everything in the 21st century world including art.</p>
<p>I mentioned graphic design to her since she loves visual perception and communication, and she writes very well (740 verbal/740 writing SATs). However, she started off as a generic Art major to learn the history and keep taking core courses, and as she samples her new department and major I expect she may narrow it down or change within the dept. Studio art isn’t her thing as a career field, though.</p>
<p>She understands my concerns about being able to support herself, but art at NEU got her so excited that she is literally giddy. How could I say no to that? She’s smart, so I believe she’ll figure out how to succeed in her field if she decides to stick with it. I am typical ENTJ and would like to help steer her toward careers that she could research or sample.</p>
<p>I personally like industrial design, being an industrial engineer, but she isn’t interested in that. She may change her mind, but I doubt she’ll change schools, so unless she went for a MFA in industrial design somewhere else, I think she’d stick with graphic design at NU if she leaves the generic art degree.</p>
<p>The department looks like it’s doing a good job of staying current and relevant, and the BFAs and MFAs get to take classes at SMFA. The dual degrees with the interactive media or multimedia might be very attractive to my son, like the one that combines digital art and video game design.</p>
<p>Enthusiam is an important quality. I would still see what you can find out about the specific places and roles for internships. I love your Meyer Briggs reference. I can’t remember what I am but I know I overlap you some. Good luck.</p>
<p>Maybe this will help: One out of seven employed people in the US are employed in some form of the arts. 85% of college graduates are NOT working in the field they majored in, however, 75% of art-related majors are. In our global, information-based society, the need for people who are trained to think creatively and solve problems is huge in so many industries. As an art major, your daughter will gain valuable experience in these areas, and if she pursues internships and alumni, will develop a network that can help her when she graduates. Personally, I could never visualize myself working in any other field, and I have enjoyed a successful career, earned an MFA later in life, and wouldn’t trade a day of doing what I love to do. Try to support your daughter, even if it means her transferring to a less expensive college option. There are many great ones out there!</p>
<p>@ Chiaro
Excellent points! Let me also add this: all of those reading this message board can look around right now and see evidence of these claims. Art is all around us every day. How many books, packages, magazines, and products can you touch right now that were heavily influenced by an art major? I’ll bet it’s a large number. Art is important for just the sake of art BUT art is also very useful in the world we live in. Artists may not get rich but they will have plenty of opportunities in life.</p>
<p>@Baronbvp
My daughter came to me as a high school sophomore a few years ago and said she wanted to be an art major in college. My initial thought was “no way I’m spending that much money for you to become a starving artist”. Over the course of about 9 months we researched the major together and what it means to pop out the other side with a BA-Fine Arts degree. We did the same for an MFA degree. We both concluded several things:</p>
<p>1) She would have a college degree. Period. An important thing in today’s world.
2) Artists can and do make a livable wage but very few make big bucks just on their art.
3) A Fine Arts degree can be an excellent dual major partner with many other majors. She could add Art History, or a language degree, or business, or whatever. Same is true about adding a Minor degree.
4) The purpose of college is not to get a job. The true purpose of college is to gain knowledge. It’s to learn more just for the sake of learning. It’s a by-product that by being a more knowledgable person you have a better chance of being wanted for many jobs and therefore you might make more money. But the real mission is knowledge.</p>
<p>My position changed 180 degrees and now I fully support her choice. I love what she’s doing!</p>
<p>Art is important. What is cherished throughout history? What would you most like to have from say 300 years ago? Yep, art would be very high on most people’s list.</p>
<p>So after all that blah blah blah let me offer my 2 cents. Encourage your daughter to pair her art degree with another major or minor in something else. She’s smart and she should take all she can from Northeastern. As mentioned above, computer science would be wonderful but so would many other majors. Also, with impressive stats like that she will most likely being eyeing grad school in a few years. Good for her!</p>
<p>chiaro: In your another post, you said you taught at FIT for eight years,
FIT mean :Fashion Institute of Technology?
I am a IT programmer, very technical, mainly build and maintain web sites. But have a D learning art in Cooper this year. I may can ask you some questions related art majors and jobs … I am so worried about she can not make a living in the future …</p>
<p>I am going to add another point to chiaro’s excellent one and to Wheaty’s. In one of our discussions about college, my son said he would rather go to a school in a place he felt he wanted to be even if the program was considered to be a lessor program than one somewhere else. I had to agree with him. I want him to go to school in an environment that feels like it fits him and that he loves being there. </p>
<p>To add to chiaro’s statistics, 50% of students change their major in college. So a student should go to a school that has other possible majors to consider because they might not end up finishing with the one they started with.</p>
<p>All great points, everybody. D just Skyped us tonight and said she’s so excited to “catch up” next semester to all the kids who started out as Art majors. She’s already taken three of her six required honors classes this first semester, and all core stuff, so she can take all art next semester and really get into it. </p>
<p>She is thinking of changing to BFA, but she says she now will do the art core courses and then decide, which I applaud. No reason to jump around so fast; she needs time for all this to percolate in her spirit. She also knows a double major is a good idea, especially a digital art one if she doesn’t go outside her field. I believe many studio artists now are doing digital art to pay the bills and studio art to make themselves happy. And, as was pointed out, D is smart and may want to pair art with something like linguistics, psychology, or anthropology. She had her eye on a masters and becoming a diplomat in the State Dept last year; maybe she’ll still go that way. In any case, Northeastern is a great fit for her. They even have a studio art degree paired with SMFA right across Huntington Ave in Boston.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the support! I’m backing her strongly, because it’s her life.</p>
<p>What do people think of this new field of Creative Industries majors? Looks to me like this is where the jobs are and will be in the field of art, outside being an actual studio artist.</p>
<p>baronbvp: Nice of you to fully support your daughter. One suggestion/recommedation would be for you to purchase Daniel Pink’s DVD on “A Whole New Mind: How Right Brainers will Rule the World” this thanksgiving both of you sit down and watch it together.
The summary is the MFA is the new MBA. But you have to see the whole DVD.
Congrats on having a BFA major!!
Mine is a BFA as well. Her job ideas are storyboard artist for film production, animator, film critic, art teaching, she is already selling her art online, and she thought about being a tattoo artist… oh well teenagers they really can take you for a ride!</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip, TheresaCPA. It will have to wait until Christmas because we live in Berlin, Germany and she’s in Boston. MFA is the new MBA, huh? Damn, I got an MBA ten years ago.</p>
<p>Thank you Wheaty. Great words of advice and encouragement. Art is interdisciplinary in nature, so combining with sciences, history, languages, etc. is a great way to go.</p>
<p>Sure, I’ll do my best to answer your questions (and yes, Fashion Institute of Technology). If your D was admitted to Cooper, she is most likely quite accomplished already, as admission is highly competitive. What year is she?</p>
<p>@baronbvp: Thanks for the link. It’s good to know about new programs. A lot of schools are creating hybrid majors, as I presume this one is, for exactly the reasons we discussed earlier - art is not a straight and narrow field (sorry for mixing metaphors), so these majors expose students to combining interests.
Also, I wanted to mention re your previous post - your D might want to think twice about taking all studio courses at once. They require A LOT of work for projects outside of classes - studios are open 24/7, and well-used. Taking 4 at a time could be overwhelming. Just my 2 cents.</p>